


there is still this light in us (there is this fight to find right where we belong)

by priorwalter



Series: morbid stuff [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21944566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/priorwalter/pseuds/priorwalter
Summary: “I guess we’re going to die here,” Neil said with a resigned, dramatic sigh. Affecting a British accent slightly more posh sounding than his usual one, he wailed, “It was wonderful to spend my last moments with you, my love; I only wish they were longer.”Kevin scoffed. He was glad Neil couldn’t see the blush on his cheeks. “We aren’t going to die, you big baby.”Neil held onto him more tightly. “We better not. You’re too dramatic to handle being dead with the grace that I do.”☾Kevin Day doesn't know what it's like to be loved, but he's learning.
Relationships: Kevin Day & Andrew Minyard, Kevin Day/Neil Josten, Neil Josten & Andrew Minyard
Series: morbid stuff [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1529054
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	there is still this light in us (there is this fight to find right where we belong)

**Author's Note:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS KEV! this fic has been in the works for ages but its finally DONE I HOPE YOU ENJOY! writing it made me fall in love with kevineil so much more. perhaps i was being unoriginal by making your christmas fic the sequel to your birthday one but i fell in love with this au!
> 
> anyway thanks to asas for bullying me into writing instead of playing portal (i mean. your bullying worked a Little Bit even though i did mostly play portal.) i really wanted to do neil pov for this fic because i like to write neil pov for everything but i made myself do kevin. i hope i did him justice! 
> 
> title of the fic from Regarding Ascending the Stairs by Lady Lamb, series title from Morbid Stuff by PUP.

Kevin took enough money with him from Evermore to survive for a long time. Supplemental income was so low on his list of priorities it was negligible, yet he was considering starting to charge Neil for how often he used Kevin as a heater. 

(That was a lie. He could never begrudge Neil for something as innocent as cuddling with him as often as possible, no matter how inconvenient.)

Kevin and Andrew were playing on Andrew’s Nintendo Switch while Neil lied down on the couch, half on top of both of them. His head was on Kevin’s lap, one hand tangled in the blanket covering him and the other gently resting on Kevin’s thigh. His legs were in Andrew’s lap, covered by a separate blanket. He was sleeping peacefully. Kevin wanted nothing more than to stare at his serene slumbering face, but that was creepy (or, at least, a different kind of creepy than Neil liked). 

The afghan covering Neil’s torso was the thickest blanket in the cottage, but his hand still felt ice cold on Kevin’s leg. Kevin had thought he knew the extent of Neil’s perpetual coldness, but, as he started staying over at the cottage more often, he found that he had only been scratching the surface. Neil sometimes fell asleep curled up like a cat in front of the furnace. His bed had two duvets and quilt. He took to wearing gloves inside as the snow started to fall. 

Kevin couldn’t complain, though. Neil had issues with touch, but more and more often lately, he let Kevin sleep in his bed with him to keep warm. They never did anything more than sleep, but Kevin cherished those nights. His past experiences with waking to find another person in the room were less than pleasant, but he and Neil were learning together. Kevin knew he was no more than a glorified space heater, but he appreciated that he was allowed to sleep with Neil curled up in his arms. 

Suddenly, Andrew threw his controller aside, distracting Kevin from his thoughts. He carefully shifted Neil’s legs from his lap so as not to wake him and slunk off to his room without so much as a second glance back at the others. Andrew often got fed up with Kevin acting ‘moony’ over Neil, though Kevin himself didn’t notice it as often as Andrew seemed to. Kevin put his controller down and began to card his fingers through Neil’s soft hair, almost flinching at the icy temperature of his skin, even under his thick mop of curls. Neil turned his head and opened one eye to stare up at Kevin. His hazel eye was glazy with exhaustion, but he said, “Let’s go out to the forest.” 

Kevin glanced out the window, eyeing the bare branches of the crabapple tree in the front yard weighed down with fresh snow from the previous night’s blizzard. “It’s pretty cold out today,” he warned.

Neil shifted until he was sitting up, tucked comfortably against Kevin’s side. “I’ll survive. Besides, it’ll be so pretty with all of the snow.” He grinned dazzlingly. Kevin’s heart always skipped a beat when Neil smiled, though he could never tell whether it was because Neil’s smile was beautiful or because it was also slightly unnerving.

Neil eventually detached himself from Kevin to go find his coats, plural. He also wore a dreadfully ugly aviator hat and thick black mittens that Wymack bought for him somewhere out of town. Most of the hats and mittens people wore in Palmetto were knitted by Matt and Seth, who claimed they belonged to their own two-person textiles club. Neil, though, required something with more layers and wind-resistance. (He still managed to feel like an ice cube.)

Neil shrank into Kevin’s side as soon as they stepped outside, but stoically refused to complain about the temperature. Kevin wrapped his arm around him to try and warm him up, though he worried it was useless. Neil led them the long way through town to the forest, telling Kevin tidbits and stories about things that had happened at each building they passed. 

“I met Matt there, at Sweetie’s,” Neil was saying as they passed a diner that was so old-looking Kevin thought the wall might collapse any second. “I wandered into town without knowing anything about what it was or why I was there. I walked in, and I was so hungry the waitress heard my stomach growling and gave me my food for free. Matt came in to pick up some food for Dan, but instead he sat with me.” He shrugged. “I don’t go into Sweetie’s anymore. Their heating is broken.” 

Kevin blurted out, “I would keep you warm. If you wanted to go in there, I mean.” His face turned tomato red, but Neil leaned up and kissed Kevin on the cheek. Kissing wasn’t exactly new to them, but casual affection was something rare that Kevin treasured.

“I’m happy you agreed to go explore the woods,” Neil said quietly, staring down at the ground. “Everyone else thinks it’s not safe to go into the forest with me.”

Kevin would go anywhere with Neil, but he also knew Neil very well, so he asked, “Are they right?” 

Neil glared up at him, but quickly deflated. “I get a little spacey sometimes. It’s because of Andrew, you know, but no one complains about going into the woods with him, do they?” He stuck his bottom lip out in an adorable pout. 

Kevin scoffed. “No one wants to go anywhere with Andrew anyway, though.” Well, Kevin and Neil liked going places with Andrew, though they were the minority. “What do you mean by it’s because of Andrew?”

Neil shrugged. “My eye. Andrew’s eye. He gave me life, but he’s one of the fae, so I am also a little bit fae, and faeries were, historically, pretty territorial. I guess Andrew doesn’t live in the woods, but you know how there are some characteristics that species keep through millennia of evolution despite not needing them anymore? That’s my theory on why Andrew gets a little more faerie-like in the woods. He just genetically likes to get people lost in the forest. Anyway, I inherited bits and pieces of that. One time Matt and I were playing soccer and he kicked the ball into the woods, so we went to look for it but it took us hours to get back out again.” 

Kevin catalogued this information to pick apart later. Neil knew fae history? And he didn’t tell Kevin all about it? He felt a little red and breathless after hearing that Neil had theories on faerie evolution. “Don’t complain about the cold if we get lost, then,” Kevin said, as if he wouldn’t give up the shirt, sweater, and coat on his back just to keep Neil warm. 

“You won’t let us get lost,” Neil said with absolute certainty as they neared the forest. It was extraordinarily creepy. Gray clouds cast eerie shadows Kevin was sure hadn’t been there a few minutes before. The bare branches of the numerous trees creaked, even though there was no wind. Kevin briefly considered telling Neil he wanted to go back home, but the gleeful look on his boyfriend’s face convinced him against it. Besides, even Kevin couldn’t ignore the childish urge to go running about in the woods; surely they wouldn’t get too turned around. 

“This would be less dangerous if Andrew let us use phones,” Kevin remarked, referring to the fact that Andrew’s wards on Palmetto blocked the use of any kind of modern phone. Experimentally, Kevin discovered that rotary phones still functioned, but it was pretty useless since the town was tight-knit enough that if you needed something, all you had to do was walk a few minutes to knock on someone’s door. 

“He won’t budge on that one,” Neil assured Kevin. “Not after what happened with me. Come on, what are you waiting for?” He tugged on Kevin’s hand, pulling him into the woods. 

Kevin tried his best to pay attention to their surroundings as they entered the forest Neil was so afraid of getting lost in, but he was distracted by Neil’s first statement. “What happened with you that made Andrew ban cellphones?” Neil so rarely offered information about his past or his death. He didn’t like answering direct questions about it, preferring to either tell Kevin when he was ready or letting it come up in conversation organically. 

Neil stopped to look at something on the ground. There were enough tall evergreens around that the snow was thinner there, blocked from hitting the ground by the thick layers of pine. Closer inspection revealed that Neil was poking at a snake hole. When no snakes emerged, he seemed to grow bored and stood back up. As if he had never stopped at all, Neil replied, “After my mom died, I was on my own for a while, running from place to place. I ended up here, but I didn’t like it; like you, I kept seeing people from my past, so I avoided being around other people most of the time. I didn’t want them to know anything true about me. Eventually, I got to know Andrew, but one of my father’s people began texting me a countdown. I knew they were coming for me and I was scared the wards wouldn’t be strong enough, so I ran from Palmetto. I didn’t want them to come for my friends, too. I got caught, and they killed me; they cut off my leg, burned my eye beyond saving, and a lot more. Wymack and Andrew found me before I was gone for too long; whatever magic watches over the town thought it wasn’t my time to die yet. They brought me back and Abby saved me.” He sighed, staring up at the gloomy sky. “Andrew’s just scared someone from my past will try to get at me again if they have access.”

Kevin didn’t reply for a long moment. It made him sick that not only had Neil come close to death, but his father actually killed him. It made him feel rage he didn’t know he was capable of. “I don’t want them to have the opportunity to get to you either.” 

Neil looked up at him with a laugh that could only be described as a giggle. “Me neither, Kev, believe you me.” 

Kevin peered over his shoulder, just to make sure that he could still see the town behind them. He could, but barely; he resolved to pay closer attention. It was very obvious what Neil was talking about when he said that he ‘gets a little spacey’; he kept stopping overturn fallen logs, or dig around in the snow to see if there was anything interesting underneath. If it had been anyone else, Kevin would be annoyed beyond belief, but instead he fell a little bit more in love with Neil each time he got distracted by an interesting-looking tree root. 

Eventually, Neil found a clearing among the trees and threw himself into the fresh snow. He grinned up at Kevin. “Come make a snow angel with me.” 

Kevin obliged, lying down in the cold, wet snow a few feet away from Neil. He hesitantly followed Neil’s lead, feeling a bit silly as he moved his arms and legs through the snow. Once they finished, Kevin sat up. “How do you get out of this without ruining it?” 

Neil raised an eyebrow. “You can’t. They always get ruined.” 

“So what’s the point?”

Neil pouted. “It’s fun!” He rolled out of his crevice in the snow until he was practically on top of Kevin. He smirked and whispered, “And now we get to warm up.”

Kevin frowned. “Are you cold? You can have my jacket if you want.”

Neil rolled his eyes and tugged on Kevin’s collar. “That’s not what I mean and you know it.” 

A slow smile spread over Kevin’s face. “What do you have in mind?” 

Neil shifted until he was straddling Kevin’s waist. “Well, it’s just you, me, and the empty woods here. No-one listening to us from the next room over.” Without warning, he poked Kevin in the chest and cried out, “You’re it!” He crawled off of Kevin’s chest and took off running. Over his shoulder, he called, “Come catch me!” 

Kevin tore off after Neil, the biting cold air stinging his lungs with each breath. Neil, despite his bad leg and the thick layer of snow covering the ground, was still faster than Kevin by a wide margin. They wove between the trees and stumbled over protruding roots until finally, Neil tripped over a rock and tumbled face-first onto a frozen-over pond. Kevin caught up within seconds and, without thinking, wrapped his arms around Neil’s chest and hauled him off the ice. Once they were both on safe, solid ground, Neil shifted until he was seated comfortably in Kevin’s lap and looped his arms around his boyfriend’s shoulders. 

“So dramatic,” Neil said drily. 

Kevin scowled. “What if the ice had broken?” 

Neil shrugged. “Well, we’ll never find out now, thanks to my knight in shining armour.” Kevin pressed their foreheads together, relishing their proximity, and Neil smiled softly before closing the distance between them. Kevin thought that kissing Neil would never get old. He would never tire of the way Neil’s body fit so perfectly against his, or the soft, breathy little sighs Neil let out when Kevin kissed his neck. He would never tire of the way Neil pressed torturously soft kisses along his jawline and knew exactly where to kiss Kevin to make him moan. 

  
Eventually, though, Neil began to shiver just a touch too much. Kevin couldn’t relate; he was practically sweating beneath his jacket. He reluctantly pulled away from Neil, taking a moment to catch his breath. “I think it’s time to go home,” he said, running his thumb over Neil’s bright red cheek, brushing over the burn mark. “You’re cold.” 

“I’m always cold,” Neil replied stubbornly, but he didn’t protest when Kevin started to move away from him. He let himself fall onto the forest floor and put a hand to his forehead, sighing dramatically. “I think you have to carry me, Kev. I’m all tuckered out.”

Kevin rolled his eyes but crouched down so Neil could climb onto his back. Once Neil was settled, Kevin took stock of their surroundings and said, “I don’t know how to get back from here.” 

Neil huffed. He sounded genuinely sad when he muttered, “This always happens to me.” 

“We’ll figure it out,” Kevin tried to assure him, but it came out sounding doubtful and awkward. 

“Great, thanks for the confidence,” Neil snapped. He dropped his face onto Kevin’s shoulders. “Do you see our footsteps?” 

Kevin followed their footsteps back to where they made snow angels, but after that, they seemed to disappear. Not for the first time, Kevin silently cursed the preternatural nature of Palmetto. He started wandering in the direction he thought that they  _ might _ have come from. “Does any of this look familiar?” 

“Mmm,” Neil replied from where his face was still shoved into Kevin’s collar.

“Wake up, I can’t carry you if you’re asleep,” Kevin said sharply. He didn’t want Neil to fall; he’d had enough of a scare at the pond. 

Neil sighed and tightened his arms around Kevin’s shoulders. “I’m tired.” 

“We’ll get you home,” Kevin promised. “Don’t die of frostbite on the way.” 

All of the trees looked the same; what was once a beautiful, slightly creepy, winter landscape was now a boring old forest with nothing out of the ordinary to give Kevin a hint as to where they were. “I mean, if we keep going in one direction, we might end up out of the forest,” Neil suggested eventually. “Maybe not where we want to be. But it’s probably better out there than in here. Besides, Palmetto won’t let us die. Or, it won’t let you die. I think I’ve used up my defying-death-chip already.” 

That worried Kevin immensely, but he said nothing. Instead, they trekked onward. The sun didn’t seem to be moving in the sky which was also making Kevin anxious, but he decided that the linear passing of time was an issue to be dealt with once they were safely outside of the woods. 

After nearly three quarters of an hour of walking, Neil spoke up, voice muddled with tiredness: “Look, you can see town!” Sure enough, Kevin could see a few old buildings far off in the distance. He kept walking toward them, but after ten minutes it became clear they were getting no closer to their target.

“I guess we’re going to die here,” Neil said with a resigned, dramatic sigh. Affecting a British accent slightly more posh sounding than his usual one, he wailed, “It was wonderful to spend my last moments with you, my love; I only wish they were longer.”

Kevin scoffed. He was glad Neil couldn’t see the blush on his cheeks. “We aren’t going to die, you big baby.”

Neil held onto him more tightly. “We better not. You’re too dramatic to handle being dead with the grace that I do.”

“Oh, look, we’re out of the forest. Who’s dramatic now?” Kevin muttered, but after only a step out of the woods he stopped in his tracks. It was as dark as night outside; a full moon hung in the sky, illuminating the eerie town.

“The sun was trying to trick us,” Neil said, glaring up at the sky as if he could express his annoyance to the moon to pass on to the sun. “I hate when this happens.”

Neil jumped off of Kevin’s back. Kevin took his hand, and they started the trek back into town. Before long, Kevin spotted a tuft of blond hair sticking out of a dark toque. Why would Andrew have been out at this hour? Suddenly, Andrew started walking toward them. It was too dark to get a read on him from his face, but the speed at which he walked was enough of an indicator. Andrew stopped abruptly in front of them. 

“Idiots,” he spat. “Where were you? Everyone is out searching.”

“We were just in the woods,” Kevin said, feeling defensive. Being the focus of Andrew’s ire always made him feel small. 

Andrew’s scowl darkened somehow. “Neil.”

“I told him what happens when I go in there and he still came!” Neil cried. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Did you really think he would say no to you?” Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow. Both Kevin and Neil didn’t respond to this, so Andrew rolled his eyes and started checking both of them over for injuries. Once they seemed to pass his inspection, he said, “Now we have to find the others.”

“This would be a lot easier if we had cell phones,” Neil said, elbowing Andrew lightly in the side. 

“Shut up,” Andrew snapped. “Help me call off the fucking search party.” 

“Search party,” Kevin echoed. Andrew did say that the others were out searching, but wording it like that made him somber. He supposed that if Neil were missing and Kevin didn’t know where he was, he would be just as frantic. 

“It’s nighttime. You’ve been missing since I got back from Bee’s,” Andrew said flatly. 

Kevin and Neil stared at one another. Had they really been gone for that long? It didn’t feel like it, but the murderous expression on Andrew’s face was evidence for the contrary. Wordlessly, they obeyed as Andrew directed them to where some of their friends had gone looking. 

Once everyone was informed and safely at home (only after a great deal of fussing), Kevin said to Neil and Andrew, “Good night, guys. See you tomorrow.”

Andrew nodded at him and left, but Neil stayed behind. “Can you stay over tonight?” he asked, grabbing one of Kevin’s hands. 

Kevin was surprised, but he would never turn that offer down. “Yes, just let me get my things from Abby’s.” 

Neil accompanied him, greeting Abby, who saw them off with an amused smile that Kevin didn’t know how to interpret. The interior of Neil and Andrew’s cottage was just this side of too-warm, as always, but Kevin couldn’t begrudge it when Neil needed it so badly. Kevin changed into more comfortable clothes in the bathroom and knocked on the door to Neil’s room, which was closed as usual.

“Come in,” Neil called. When Kevin looked around the room, there were significantly fewer blankets on Neil’s bed than usual; instead, they were strewn on the floor. Kevin began to pick them up, but Neil said, “Leave them there.”

“Why?” 

Neil gave him a confused look. “You’re here. I don’t need all the blankets.” 

This struck Kevin as odd. “If it’s too hot to sleep with me there, I can go.” 

“You’re so stupid,” Neil muttered, smiling to himself. When Kevin said nothing in reply, Neil sighed despairingly and explained, “I would rather sleep with you beside me than with all the blankets.”

“I thought you just liked to have me here because I’m warm,” Kevin said. Surely Neil wasn’t saying…

“Get in here, you idiot,” Neil ordered, voice fond. “I like it when you’re here. You make me feel safe and I like knowing where you are and I like cuddling with you and I just like you a lot, okay?”

Kevin’s face flushed, but he did as Neil said. Neil immediately tucked himself against Kevin’s chest. His cold skin was always a shock, but Kevin didn’t mind; he pulled Neil as close as he could toward himself and tangled their legs together. He was cold thanks to Neil’s subzero skin pressed against his, but inside, he felt impossibly warm. 

☾

Kevin awoke to Neil’s multicoloured eyes staring down at him. When he saw that Kevin was awake, he grinned. Kevin groaned and turned his face back into the pillow. Neil was always an early riser, but Kevin was anything but. 

“Wake up, Kev, the day’s basically over,” Neil whined. “We have things to do!”

“No we don’t,” Kevin mumbled into the pillow. He turned his head enough to check the time on Neil’s alarm clock. “It’s ten, the day has barely begun.” 

“Yes we do, get dressed,” Neil insisted. He poked Kevin (rather hard) in the ribcage. “C’mon.” 

“Fiiiiiine,” Kevin sighed, dragging himself into a sitting position. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and yawned. It was too early to be awake, let alone out of bed. 

Neil leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Kevin’s lips before making a sour face. “Morning breath, yuck.” 

Kevin stuck his tongue out. “I’ll go back to bed.” 

“You can’t! I’ll kill you,” Neil threatens. “I’ll never kiss you again.” 

“Oh no,” Kevin drawled. “I’m so scared.” He grabbed Neil’s waist and pulled him against his chest before lying back down, taking Neil with him. Neil fought his grip, weakly enough that Kevin knew he didn’t really feel trapped, but eventually he gave up. Kevin kissed the top of his head. 

“Let me up,” Neil muttered, but his command was contradicted by the way he clutched Kevin’s chest. They fell asleep like that, only to be woken up half an hour later by an incessant banging on the door.    
  


“Oh, fuck, we gotta go,” Neil said. “We’re coming, Andrew!” He called in the general direction of the door. 

Kevin frowned. “Where are we going?” 

“Matt and Dan’s,” Neil replied as he searched for an appropriate shirt to wear. “For a holiday party.”

Kevin thought for a moment. “What holiday?” 

Neil laughed. “Christmas. Come on, get up.” 

Kevin reluctantly rolled out of bed and searched for his bag of clothes among the pile of blankets on the ground. “Is it Christmas already?” Time seemed to pass differently in Palmetto; sure, it was wintertime, and sure, it seemed like a few months had passed since his arrival during summer, but it didn’t feel like Christmas.

“I didn’t realize either,” Neil said. “Now go brush your teeth or I really won’t ever kiss you again.”

☾

Andrew, Neil, and Kevin were late to Matt and Dan’s; the usual suspects had all already arrived. Matt lit up when he saw Neil and stole him away. Kevin left to see Jeremy, leaving Andrew to talk to Renee. It was a quiet morning; everyone seemed subdued after the panic the night before. 

Eventually, Kevin found himself talking to Dan. He liked Dan. She was a leader and he appreciated how much she and Matt looked after Neil when even himself and Andrew couldn’t talk sense into him. 

“So, when are you going to move in with them?” Dan asked, smirking. 

Kevin frowned. “Who?”

“Neil and Andrew. I mean, you practically live there already. Abby said you were over there last night,” Dan said. When Kevin did not reply, she crossed her arms. “You are committed to him, right? If you broke Neil’s heart, I’d have to kill you.” 

“No!” Kevin cried. He felt his face turn bright red. “I mean, yes, of course I’m… committed, I just don’t think he wants that. Andrew neither.”

Dan scoffed. “You must be blind. They’re obsessed with you.” 

Kevin privately disagreed, but instead of addressing that he steered the conversation in another direction. Still, what Dan said stayed in his mind all afternoon. He knew that Neil cared about him to some degree, but it seemed unlikely that he would want Kevin to move in with him. It was the same with Andrew; Andrew was probably Kevin’s best friend other than Neil, but he doubted that Andrew felt the same way. 

When the afternoon was nearing its end, Dan called everyone into the living room. She had a camera hanging from her neck and an infectious grin on her face. Kevin assumed she planned on adding to the bulletin board on the wall behind her that had photos of all of her friends. There was even one of him, taken when he and Andrew were arguing about which character was the best to play as in Smash Bros. It made him at once uncomfortable and happy to see himself up on the board; it made him feel like he had a place there. 

“Abby and Wymack, come on,” Dan said. Under Dan’s direction, they did the awkward-prom-photo pose, making everyone laugh. Dan called a few others up until she said, “Kevin, do you want a picture with Wymack?” 

Kevin’s father looked over at him and shrugged. Nervously, Kevin nodded. He was closer with Wymack now, but they still had (many, many) awkward moments. Now was one of those times; Wymack put his arm around Kevin’s shoulder for the photo, but they parted immediately afterward.

Kevin saw Neil tugging on Andrew’s sleeve. “Come on, family photo time,” Neil said, laughing at Andrew’s unamused expression. Kevin moved out of the way to make room for Andrew and Neil, not wanting to get in the way of their ‘family photo’, as Neil called it. 

“Kevin, come on,” Andrew said in his droning monotone.

  
“What?”

“Don’t you want to be in the picture?” Neil asked. “You have to be in it or else it’s not a family photo.” 

For the second time that day, Kevin felt a blush rise on his cheeks. Silently, he stood at Neil’s side. Neil put one arm around Kevin and the other around Andrew. Kevin thought the photo would turn out horrible with how stupidly he was grinning. 

Once the party wound down, Neil appeared at Kevin’s side, frowning. “Can we go home? I’m sleepy.” 

Kevin looked around, searching for a familiar blond head. “Where’s Andrew?” 

Neil shrugged. “He’s talking to Renee. I asked him, and he said we could go without him.” 

Kevin nodded, and they said their goodbyes. A warm feeling had settled in Kevin’s chest, and even the biting cold weather on the walk home couldn’t diminish it.

He didn’t know when he would gather the courage to ask again, so he blurted out, “Dan asked me when I was moving in with you.”

Neil looked up at him and shrugged. “I don’t know. Whenever you want. You basically already live with us anyway.” 

The simplicity of Neil’s answer baffled Kevin. “Just like that?” 

Neil stopped walking and tugged on Kevin’s collar. Kevin obliged and leaned down, and Neil gave him a searing kiss. “Just like that,” Neil mumbled against Kevin’s lips after a few moments.

“Would Andrew agree?” Kevin fretted, pulling away. 

Neil scoffed. “You’re thinking about Andrew while I’m trying to kiss you?”

“This is important,” Kevin whined. “I think Andrew would be too annoyed by me.”

Neil rolled his eyes and put his hands on Kevin’s shoulders, looking him in the eyes. “It’s fine, Kev. We’ve talked about it and it’s fine. If he really hated it he would do more than bang on the wall when I make too much noise when we’re making out.” 

“What would he do?”

  
Neil shrugged. “I don’t know, probably stab you. Anyway, shut up, let’s go home, it’s fucking cold.” He took Kevin’s hand. They walked the rest of the way home in silence. Kevin felt elated; he felt like a weight he hadn’t even noticed was lifted off of his shoulders. They arrived at the cottage; Neil’s home. Kevin’s home, too; he didn’t live there, not yet, but there was no other place he felt more himself, or more safe.

He and Neil collapsed onto the sofa when they arrived at the cottage. Neil stuck his cold hands under Kevin’s shirt to annoy him and Kevin pushed him into the ground in retaliation. Neil pulled himself back up and made himself comfortable in Kevin’s lap. 

“Kevin,” Neil asked, face mocking seriousness. “Do you want to move in with us?” 

Kevin nodded, but he privately thought that he had already found his home; home was curled up on top of him, arms looped around his chest. Home was red curls and one blue eye, one hazel. Home was Neil’s cold mouth pressed to Kevin’s warm one and home was the way Andrew told them to fuck off when he came home to find them making out on the couch. 

It was hard to believe that not too long ago, Kevin never thought he’d truly feel at home anywhere; now he had a father, a best friend, a lover. He belonged. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comment, kudos, etc. I'm at carterchilcott.tumblr.com.


End file.
